Galveston Criminal Attorney Discusses Common Arrests During Holidays or Events

Galveston Criminal Attorney Discusses Common Arrests During Holidays or Events

What Are Some Common Offenses Charged On Holidays or During Events?

It kind of depends on the holiday or type of event that’s happening on Galveston Island or in Galveston County. Thanksgiving is coming up, which is a holiday weekend. On Thanksgiving weekends, we typically see a slight increase in two types of cases.

One is alcohol-involved offenses, driving while intoxicated, etc. A lot of people get together, and when the family gets together, they start drinking for Thanksgiving, and then they drive home and get pulled over for a DWI. The other increase we see over a holiday weekend like Thanksgiving is in domestic violence cases.

As some of you know, sometimes family members don’t get along too well. So, when they all get together for a family event, things can happen. Sometimes the police are called. That’s something we see a lot of. It’s the same for Christmas. The same two types of offenses for the same reasons.

For New Year’s, it’s mostly a spike in driving while intoxicated cases. Also, during New Year’s celebrations, we see people shooting guns instead of fireworks. Which is also common on the Fourth of July. We see some gun cases charged as a result. Fourth of July is also a big driving while intoxicated weekend. They usually put extra officers out on patrol, specifically for DWI Task Force operations.

The same goes for certain event weekends. Like the biker rally, most of the cases we see come out of the biker rally are intoxication cases. There are occasionally some fights and whatnot, but it’s not anything out of control. It’s more alcohol-related cases after the biker rally.

Same thing with Jeep weekend or go topless weekend over on crystal beach. It’s mainly intoxication cases, however on that weekend, it’s more of a broad range. They’ll do a lot of minors in possession of alcohol. A lot of public intoxications, and DWI’s. People sometimes forget that the beach is a highway. So, if you’re on the beach and driving while intoxicated, you can easily pick up a DWI.

There have also been a couple of unscheduled events on Galveston that caused an increase in offenses. There was a SLAB car event and the city of Galveston tried to get on top of that. It resulted in a lot of traffic citations for vehicles with illegal equipment, but we didn’t see a lot of arrests come out of that.

Mardi Gras is another big intoxication weekend, where you see a lot of cases filed for alcohol-related offenses. The common theme is if it’s a big holiday weekend, or an event that has a lot of people drinking alcohol, we do see a lot of alcohol-related arrests. If it’s an event that gets families together, then we see an increase in domestic violence cases.

Mark Diaz & Associates are experienced criminal defense attorneys in Galveston County Texas. If you have been charged with a crime call (409) 515-6170